The present invention relates to a vend space allocation means and method, and, more particularly, to a means and method for determining, based upon historical demand for the various vend product selections, a vend space allocation configuration for a given vend system that has a plurality of allocatable vend product storage areas. Such vend space allocation means and method are particularly useful with vend systems for selectively dispensing or vending several different types of products from product storage columns, especially for products that are of generally cylindrical configurations, such as bottles or cans, and with vend systems that have a greater number of allocatable vend product storage areas than vend product selections.
Over the years a variety of approaches have been utilized in attempts to match product stocking of a vending machine to the perceived demand for the various products to be vended therefrom. Among such approaches have been the use of multiple columns with their associated selection and product delivery means for vending major products and single columns with their associated selection and product delivery means for vending secondary products, the use of multiple columns with common selection and/or product delivery means for vending major products and single columns with their associated selection and product delivery means for vending secondary products, the use of differently sized columns to permit the stacking of cans or like items in double as opposed to single stacks, the use of half-height columns which permits secondary products to be stored in such smaller sized columns while major products are stored in full-height columns that may open out above the half-height columns, the use of columns of staggered heights with inclined racks or other storage areas above selected ones of the staggered height columns to obtain product storage compartments of varying capacities, and the use of column transfer means such as column transfer shelves, gates, and trap doors which permit those products stored above a certain level in one column to be transferred into another column for vending therefrom, some of which approaches have permitted service personnel, at the time of restocking of a particular vending machine, to set, adjust, or re-position certain elements in such particular vending machine so that the product storage therein will more closely match the empirical demand for products observed by such service personnel.
Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,245,755; 4,699,295; and 4,705,176 all discuss the difficulties and history of trying to develop vending systems wherein product storage space can be optimally allocated to the various product types that are desired to be vended therefrom, and all illustrate approaches to the Problem of space to sales allocation. While there has been considerable work devoted to the design of vending machines that will permit optimal allocation of product storage space to anticipated product demand and considerable discussion regarding the desirability of matching the product stocking of a vending machine to the sales therefrom, there has beer little discussion regarding the manner in which it is determined whether or to what extent a particular space to sales allocation scheme is acceptable in light of the actual historical demand for the various types of products, and, if such allocation scheme is not acceptable, how a more appropriate allocation scheme can be effected.
In many instances product demand may vary from location to location and machine to machine. While pre-established space to sales configurations may be established based upon national or regional statistics regarding the relative popularity of various products desired to be vended from a particular machine, it often falls upon the service personnel to determine from their observations when servicing a machine how closely the anticipated product demand corresponds to sales from that machine. If one or more types of product are consistently sold out every time the machine is serviced while other types of product remain available in abundance, the particular space to sales allocation scheme being employed is clearly not appropriate. Because of the obvious inappropriateness of the space to sales allocation scheme most service personnel would recognize the desirability of attempting in some way to compensate for or to revise or tailor the space to sales allocation scheme. Some of the tricks of the trade that may be employed by the service personnel are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,176. In certain instances, if the product storage areas of the machine are susceptible to reallocation among the various types of vend products, it may then be possible to reconfigure product storage by repositioning certain column transfer elements or other reconfiguration means to obtain a reallocation of vend product storage among the various types of vend products. One of the difficulties faced by service personnel, however, is the determination of what product storage allocation scheme should be established in any particular instance. While service personnel may attempt to base such determination upon their observations regarding the perceived relative popularity of the vend products, subjective biases of such service personnel can often easily influence such determination. Moreover, while obvious mismatch conditions may be determinable by service personnel from their observations upon servicing the machine, less obvious mismatch conditions can easily, and often do, escape recognition by even the most observant service personnel over extended periods of time. Regardless of whether such mismatch conditions are obvious or not, reconfiguration determinations often come down to subjective decisions by service personnel, many of which decisions are little better than hunches or guesses by such service personnel.
Applicant's co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 303,547, filed Jan. 27, 1989, discloses and teaches a means and method for monitoring product demand over a period of time and for determining, based upon such product demand, whether an established vend space allocation configuration for the vend system is consistent with such product demand. As is described and explained in such application, with some embodiments thereof, especially those embodiments wherein a significant amount of result data indicative of the degree of deviation between vend product space allocated and product demand is provided, authorized personnel can generally arrive at reconfiguration determinations whose vend product allocations more closely match actual product demand. Even with such vend selection monitor means and method, however, the authorized personnel must make subjective determinations based upon the information made available to them.
The present invention therefore is a refinement of and improvement over the invention of Applicant's co-pending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 303,547, filed Jan. 27, 1989, in that it provides for the objective determination of a preferred, optimized vend product storage allocation configuration based, at least in part, upon the historical product demand over a period of time and for communication of such objective determination to the authorized personnel so that they can effect a reconfiguration of the vend product storage allocation if they so desire and if reconfiguration is necessary to more closely match vend product storage to product demand.